The first ever BIMST-EC summit opened in Bangkok on Saturday with India stressing the need to forge a common front against terrorism, gunrunning and drug trafficking.
"The scourge of terrorism is unfortunately one with which we all must grapple -- as a global phenomenon and as an everyday reality. The areas of conflict are coming closer to us," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the inauguration of the summit.
He warned intolerance bred by religious extremism could divide societies and people and "we neglect it at our peril."
The mutual confidence among BIMSTE-EC countries would be greatly enhanced "if we were to forge a common front against terrorism, gunrunning, narcotics trafficking, which in varying degrees affect us all," Singh said.
Asserting that the global political environment fosters insecurity, making our task even more complex and our endeavour more urgent, Singh said: "We have to work for peace and for security and to create a new climate in which we can concentrate on our primary responsibility -- a better life for all our peoples."
The summit began with a speech by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who described the summit as "politically appropriate and economically timely."
Apart from India and Thailand, the other members of BIMST-EC are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleeda Zia also referred to the growing menace of terrorism and said BIMST-EC should
have an unequivocal stand to fight this global menace.
Singh said the solutions to some of these problems lie with the governments. "We have to reach out beyond, to find imaginative answers to intractable issues.
"This is the way we have chosen in India. It is this perspective -- that the many dimensions of the challenges we face can only be solved by working together that brings us here today," he said.
A global order, which is better representative and more responsive to the needs of our times, must include, the reform of the United Nations and a restructuring of the Security Council, Singh said.
The prime minister also reaffirmed India's firm political commitment to regional partnership for mutual benefit, wholehearted support and cooperation with BIMST-EC partners so that "we succeed in our efforts to translate
ideals into meaningful cooperation."
